The first round of playoffs is in the books, with UND, DU, UW, UM, and UMD getting sweeps to move on to the Final 5. The Bulldogs get the only "upset" of the weekend in downing the Tigers in C-Springs.
Minnesota-Duluth v Minnesota - Thursday at 7pm
By upsetting CC, the Bulldogs get the 5-seed and play the Gophers (4-seed) on Thursday evenings play-in game. These two teams just played each other on Feb 27th & 28th, with a results being a tie and a Gopher win, at Mariucci. The Gophers have 17 wins this season, with 6 of them against the Huskies of SCSU, that is 35% of the UM's wins is against one team. I think the Bulldogs will want some revenge this Thursday night from their poor showing about 3 weeks ago. Some people think the Gophers have finally turned their season around, and their goalie, Kangas, is back. I don't think they have completely righted their ship, a couple of waves here and there and the rats will be fleeing their ship again. I think the Bulldogs will build off the road sweep of CC and the hat trick they scored against the Gophers last time and put Minnesota's playoff chances in jeopardy. Bulldogs 3, Gophers 2.
Wisconsin v Denver - Friday at 2pm
The first semi-final game features one team locked (DU) into the NCAA tournament and the other having to win the playoff championship (UW) to get in. The regular season series between the two teams went like this - they open up the WCHA schedule in Denver in some wild games, 6-5 and 7-4 Pioneer wins, and in Madison in Feb. the Badgers stumble at home and lose 4-3(ot) and 5-0, so DU lead this year 4-0-0. However, now that Bucky's backs against the boards, they will play with everything they got, and then some. The Pioneers are looking to hold onto a number one seed in the NCAA tourney, and repeat as Broadmoor champions. DU lost one of their top scorers in Ruegsegger, last weekend, to a knee injury (get well soon), and Jesse Martin, another center, is also lost to a lower-body injury (get well soon) and Bozak is not yet ready to return. With DU loosing body's they will have to do some line shuffling, and hope things click and quickly. Do to the injuries, I'm going with the Badgers in this one, UW 3, DU 2.
UMD/UM v North Dakota - Friday 7pm
I could wait until Thurday night/Friday morning to post this match-up, but why wait. The Sioux are 2-0-0 versus the Gophers and 0-1-1 versus the Bulldogs this year. I think the Sioux would love to play either team, Gophers, nothing like beating one of your arch-rivals in their backyard, Bulldogs, get some redemption for the first half of the season. Whoever the Sioux play I like their chances of winning, UMD has had the steady goal tending of Stalock all season, and UM has had issues with goal tending since January after playing in Grand Forks. UND's goalie, Brad Eidsness has quietly put up some good numbers this year, 2.39 GAA (1st-tie) and .909% (6th)in WCHA games, and has made timely saves when needed. I'm going with the Sioux to win their semi-final game.
Good picks there Sioux 7. Your explanation of the picks are backed up by good data. I hate it when dorks pick a team because they're a fan of that team and offer no insightfullness based upon the matchup as a whole. You will recall that no #4 or #5 seed has ever won this tournament...ever. St Cloud came close in 2006 and Minnesota came close in 2008 though. For the winner of the play in game to even get to the championship game is an accomplishment. I like UMD over Minnesota by a 4-2 margin, Wisconsin over DU 2-1 in OT, Sioux over UMD 4-3 on Friday evening, UMD over DU 3-2 for the consolation, and Wisconsin over the Sioux 2-0 in the championship.
ReplyDeleteI think sometimes beat writers and college hockey news writers are also homers, I just got done listening to the INCH boys minus Jess Meyers talking like a bunch of homers ECAC blah, blah, blah...
ReplyDeleteThen they covered Hockey east, BU is good blah, blah... I guess there isn't a AHA, CCHA or WCHA this season. It's just human nature. It's kind of like the DU and UMN media bloggers blaming all the fights on the Sioux. :)
I do hope UMD wins on thursday night. Don't worry Donna I am not wearing a UMD bulldog jersy. I know it woud jinx the team if I did.
Question for ya Goon...is it typical for the #1 seed to play on Friday night? For some reason I was thinking that the #1 seed would have the afternoon game, so they would have the longest break between games, pending a win.
ReplyDeleteJake,
ReplyDeleteIt's the stupid Gopher rule, I think they went ahead and assumed that the Gophers are going to win and the Sioux will get the 7:00 PM GAME.
Gophers 3, Bulldogs 2.
ReplyDeleteRookie of the Year Schroeder's line gets two of the Gopher goals.
Kangas plays well but not miraculously. Same with Stallock who roams a bit less than he did three weeks ago.
Few penalties.
If the Gophers play their best for 50+ minutes instead of 20-30, it will be a route.
Breck School alumn Jordan Fulton shows State Champion little brother Tyson that he too can score at the X and gets one goal; Sharp gets the other Bulldog goal.
I have E.S.P.
Hey WCHA, I like your picks. Wisconsin wins the Broadmoor, I'll take it!
ReplyDeleteGoon, I was looking at the PWR and I can't believe that the ECAC might get 4 teams in. When you look at individual comparisons, the vs TUC's hasn't even kicked in for most of them. I think the PWR should penalize teams for NOT playing at least 10 TUCs. Never any issue for WCHA teams, and its not the teams in the WCHA's problem that the ECAC sucks. Getting your 10th TUC during your conf final is a pathetic. Wisconsin had 10 TUC games 12 games into the season!
I'd wager on UAA over any of those schools in a three game series.
Can't wait til regionals when all the ECAC teams get beat the first night. Hopefully the WCHA teams who make it get a draw against them.
Gandalf it will be fun watching the EZAC schools getting bounced in the first round. I can't believe thier league is really week. UAA was a tough team.
ReplyDeleteAs far as CedarBrewSioux's question, the answer is this: on that Friday for the semi-final games, they always put Minnesota in the evening game because it's a selling point. They've flip-flopped the afternoon semis with the evening many teams based upon who's playing in them. The WCHA doesn't really care who wins, they just want Minnesota and North Dakota in the tournament so they can make some money. I have a feeling that whoever loses on Thursday night's game is done for the season. And Wisconsin will need to beat at least Denver on Friday to have a legit chance at the NCAA tourney at-large bid.
ReplyDeleteWisconsin needs to win the tourney this weekend to advance. It will make for good theater. Wisconsin could do it, their week link is Connely IMHO the rest of their team is pretty solid.
ReplyDeleteJust for the record I would rather see the Badgers in the tourney than the Goofs.
ReplyDeleteGoon stopped talking about the gophers, their fans will get restless about your "obsession". I think everyone in the WCHA will get a good laugh if minnesota misses out and doesn't get to host their own Regional. I would have expected the same if Wisconsin hadn't backed in last season.
ReplyDeleteThere are some scenarios where UW can lose in the championship game and get in, but like last season a dozen things need to fall right for this to occur. I'd rather see two Wisconsin victories.
Connelly can be the weak link or one of the strongest, the team is hot right now after crushing the land cows. For the record, our goalie has a better conf save % than yours...just saying.
Yeah I know Shane had a better save percentage, I think that is the weakest link on your team. The Defenseman on the Badgers are pretty solid in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe the Badgers put something like 107 shots on net this past weekend, holy cow. That is a lot rubber flying at ZACH.
Just for the record Gandalf and Goon: Wisconsin has fired a total of 111 shots on goal the past 3 games (and an astonishing 66 last Friday) and totaled 15 goals in them, only allowing 4. "Red" hot might be the words best used to describe them right now.
ReplyDeleteHey Goon, I'm going to be in attendance on Thursday and Saturday night for the games. I heard through the grapevine that you're going to be at McGovern's for a shin-dig before Thursday night's game. If time permits, I'll make my way over there for a brew with you and your fellow hockey enthusiasts. I am going to check out the Hockey Lodge at the Xcel for some WCHA Hockey apparel before the game too. Beware though, I'm rooting for Bucky and the Bulldogs, not Goldy or the Sioux...
ReplyDelete